Robot Operations Framework

Proof of concepts are experiments where you test something to prove that it works for the organization. To prove that it worked, you need to measure indicators that mean success or no success.

It is important to find KPIs (key performance indicators) that are significant for your operations and that the management also understands to give the green light to continue with it. In an example transport case the KPI for the operations is probably the number of transports during an hour. Another example could be a process where the robot picks goods and transports them to a given location. Here your operational KPI is probably the picks per hour. Additionally an overarching KPI for both cases is the utilization of the robot. This actually means a ratio of time the robot was busy divided by the time the robot was operational.

We can divide the KPIs by:

• Operational KPIs (like picks per hour)
• Robot KPIs (like duration of charging)
   

IIf an operational metric is not meeting your expectations, this does not always mean that the robot is not suitable. It can also be interpreted as: the current process can be optimized or is not suitable for the robots. It is a very normal way to figure out that the processes that were planned for humans are not very efficient in robot operations. To optimize this process flow, you have to invest time and also ask experts to speed up this process.

In addition to the definition of KPIs, make sure that these KPIs are tracked and displayed to you. Also make sure that you can easily create reports of these KPIs. Tools like WAKU Sense can help you with that.